NASA postpones asteriod mission because of cost concerns

January 22, 2006

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A NASA spacecraft built to explore two of the solar system's largest asteroids won't launch this year because the space agency is dealing with cost overruns and technical issues in the project. The planned summer launch of the Dawn spacecraft has been indefinitely postponed, said Andrew Dantzler, director of NASA's solar system division. Mission managers had been ordered to halt work on Dawn last fall while the project was assessed by an independent review team, which is expected to present its findings to NASA on Jan. 27. Even if NASA gives Dawn the green light, it would take another year for engineers to finish routine testing of the spacecraft, said mission principal investigator Christopher Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles. The project was capped at $371 million, according to Russell, and when project scientists asked for an extra $40 million last year, NASA ordered the standdown to figure out why it was going over budget. Dawn was supposed to be launched from Florida in June.